usatoday.com
Have Drug Czar - Will Travel for Prohibition

John Walters is touring Nevada on the taxpayer's dime this week, once again engaging in partisan politics, stumping against the latest citizen's initiative to legalize marijuana. I think it's criminal that he is allowed to use our tax dollars to attempt to subvert the will of the people. Only in this administration could such misuse of public funds in pursuit of a private agenda be so blatantly flaunted.

He spews his usual flawed statistics about his studies showing marijuana addiction comprising 60% of treatment cases. Of course he fails to mention most of the treatment is court ordered, and is chosen as an option to incarceration.

And as always he omits that Bush only allowed studies to be conducted by his hand-picked scientists whom he could be sure would deliver the stats he wanted. One hears stories all the time about those researchers who have been dis-funded for their political views and coming up with the 'wrong', albeit true, results.

And let's not forget Ricaurte's bogus study on ecstasy that was supported by Bush, delivered the stats and was later found to be completely bogus. These false statistics are still being quoted today in columns and right wing blogs and on the floor of legislatures. The truth has no value nor meaning for Bush and his minions like czar Walters.

The new proposal is significantly more modest than the last initiative that attempted to legalize up to three ounces for personal use. It calls for legalizing possession of 1 ounce of marijuana and would increase penalties for vehicular manslaughter and delivery of marijuana to a minor.

Jennifer Knight, a spokeswoman for the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, said "Walters represents what is wrong with our current system," she said. "He keeps supporting current marijuana laws that don't work... Where is his solution?"

Walters suggests increased interdiction and penalties for marijuana and stricter border controls on all drugs would do the trick.

But Candice Kidd, director of the WestCare women's campus, said a greater problem in Nevada is methamphetamine, a stimulant that increases energy and decreases appetite.

"Methamphetamine seems the be the drug of choice for a lot of women," she said, adding 90 percent of the women in her programs are addicted to the drug.

Walters promises to go after meth labs also. For every question, his answer is to escalate the current failed policies; as if throwing more money away would make them more effective.

The reported premise of his 'tour' was to speak about prescription drug abuse and he said legalizing marijuana is "not an area for legitimate debate." However he seems to be addressing little else than defeating the citizen's marijuana initiative. Since he doesn't dare debate the issue for fear of being made a fool of by the facts, he should get out of Nevada and let its citizens decide for themselves whether to establish sensible cannabis statutes within their own borders.